Maybe there is a gray area of OEM licenses. The case I said was a large OEM (Compaq), and probably the same applies to HP, Dell, and similar who handle the licenses . I see OEM versions of XP for sale, and I would think the license would go back to Microsoft on those, and they could be moved to another machine, but I have o experience to confirm or deny that. ~) Note that I did not plan to have one license on more than 1 machine. Xiaofan Chen wrote: > On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 3:47 AM, Nate Duehr wrote: > >> Carl Denk wrote: >> >> >>> Moral: Can't take an OEM version and move it to another machine. As a >>> lower priority, I'm trying to migrate away from Microsoft, but has been >>> a struggle to get Linux up and running well. >>> >> If you're moving to Linux and it's not working well, Mac is a viable >> option and available today for most applications. >> > > It seems to me that you have a point here. There are some software > which is available for Mac OS X but not Linux (some Adobe, MS Offfice). > > For those who are satisfied with XP, you can always stick to XP. > I still see shops selling OEM version of XP as long as you buy > a relative complete system from them. Actually I still see Windows > 98SE offered in some shops but not many people will buy it. > > >> (I know there are some things that PICList members want that simply >> aren't available on anything other than Windows, but if you're already >> over that and willing to move to Linux, Mac may cost you more money >> up-front, but lead to less downtime while you "hack" on Linux to make it >> behave. Cost vs. Time... the same business decision anyone has to make...) >> >> There's also another way to look at the OS "wars"... >> >> Windows -- Consistently getting worse. >> > > The general perception of Windows Vista is not so positive > even though there are users who like it. Hopefully Windows 7 > will change that. > > >> Mac -- Consistently getting better. >> > > Seems to be true. And it seems to me Macs are getting > cheaper as well, but still more expensive than PC loaded > with Windows. > > >> Linux -- Consistently getting better and worse at the same time, >> depending on what you're trying to do. (GRIN) >> > > For desktop usage, I think it is getting better and better. > But I do not like GUI junks like Compiz. My Ubuntu > 8.04 installation hangs during startup if Compiz > is enabled. Other than that Ubuntu 8.04 runs smoothly > (but XP runs very smoothly as well). > > > Xiaofan > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist